BRIGHTON - Favourites England were made to work hard for their 47-7 victory against Australia at the Brighton & Hove Albion Stadium on Saturday, topping Pool A with their opponents also going through to the last eight of Rugby World Cup 2025.

Story of the match

Australia, knowing they would join England in the quarter-finals ahead of the USA with a defeat by 74 points or less, struck first, Adiana Talakai finishing a well-worked try off the back of a driving lineout.

But England hit straight back, Jess Breach marking her 50th cap with her 51st, and probably easiest, test try.

The rest of England's victory was built on their superior forward power, particularly in the scrum. Australia defended heroically but had no answer the the hosts' relentless physicality.

England scored six more tries, with Sadia Kabeya and replacement prop Kelsey Clifford both touching down twice, to make it a record-equalling 30th victory in a row as a sell-out 30,443 crowd partied in the evening sunshine.

Mastercard Player of the Match

Alex Matthews put in a captain's performance for England from number eight, carrying over the gain line 10 time as England's forwards gradually gained dominance.

"I'm just so proud of the girls, we didn't have momentum in the first half, we stuck at it, we stuck to our gameplan and we came out on top," she said. "That's the challenge that everyone out there has wanted us to have and we've shown we can do it.

"I was proud of how we stuck together. Our lineout wasn't functioning as normal, Australia's kicking game was phenomenal and really tested us in the backfield. Our subs were phenomenal. We couldn't do it without the whole squad."

Coach insight

"I thought our defence was outstanding," England head coach John Mitchell said. At times we were a bit ugly in attack, and that's something within our own control. 

"I haven't thought that far ahead [to the quarter-final against Scotland] to be honest. It's great to see them [Scotland] performing well in the tournament and it's great that two nations who have such rich rugby histories will be in a World Cup quarter-final."

Australia head coach Jo Yapp took the positives from what, on the scoreboard, looked like a heavy defeat.

"The positive thing is we created opportunities, we got field position and then we couldn't execute," she said. "Credit to England, they were coming up the line hard at us. But I'm proud of the first half, the way we took it to them.

"In the second half we lost momentum, lost a couple of key set-pieces and then we were on the back foot. Credit to England, they capitalised on that."

Stat of the Day

1 - the number of times England have lost in their past 60 test matches. That was the Rugby World Cup 2021 final (in 2022) to New Zealand.

Next steps

Both face quarter-finals at Bristol's Ashton Gate Stadium next weekend, Australia playing Canada on Saturday while England take on Scotland on Sunday.